Miscellaneous Trials

Published Feb 9, 1995

Several on-farm trials don’t fall into easy categories, but that doesn’t make them any less Ron and Maria Rosmann, for example, who compared corn populations in their transition system, also looked at soybean planting rates. They compared 171 thousand seeds per thousand seeds (Table 5). They observed no difference in either crop yield or weed supp between the two planting populations.

Ted and Donna Bauer compared purchased soybean seed with farm-grown seed (sample) was cleaned and germination tested by a neighbor (Table 5). There was no yield difference after accounting for handling, storage, and the lost sales opportunity, planting farm-grow more profitable by over seven dollars per acre. This was the third year they have done th result has always been similar.

The Bauers also carried on a comparison of mid-October and early-November corn harvest they began two years ago. In the first year, the late harvest clearly came out ahead, while the economics favored the early harvest. In 1994, moisture-corrected yields were 7.5 bu with the early harvest (Table 5). But because of drying and handling costs, the November was more profitable, even taking into account the value of the yield difference. Ted also the combine moves more slowly through the moister corn encountered at the early harvest about the corn left on the ground due to late harvest? Ted is hoping for some open winter will allow his cattle to clean up those ears.

Tom and Irene Frantzen wanted to know how berseem clover would behave with oats. T berseem has potential as a green manure and a source of quick livestock forage. But ho into their present cropping system? They compared oats seeded with berseem to oats se mammoth red clover (Table 5). In 1994, the berseem grew nearly as tall as the oats, ma necessary to windrow the oat crop. Unfortunately, rains combined with the heavy berseem retard drying of the cut grain, so some oat yield was lost in the berseem strips. Tom note the berseem clover may contribute more as a green manure for next year’s corn than it t oat yields.